A Long Road to Fortune/Issue 2
This is the second issue in Volume 1 of A Long Road to Fortune. It is titled The Lion's Sacrifice. Issue 2 Ashton rushed as fast as he could out of one of his house's gates and into the street. He was wearing a clean uniform (which only consisted of a shirt) and his backpack was full of school supplies. Ashton ran down the street and made his way to his usual taxi spot. However, upon reach his spot he was surprised. "Wow. No cars, no people, no nothing. This is place is a ghost town." said Ashton. "Oh wait, I think see some people." Ashton peeked in the distance and saw a giant herd of what he believed to be people. "Huh. Is there some holiday today I didn't know about? Why is everyone moving so slowly and in herds. It's almost as if their trying to imitate a bad horror movie" said Ashton aloud to himself, laughing. Ashton's laughter soon ceased however, as he began to hear footsteps and growling behind him. "Grrarr" one of the dead attacked Ashton. Ashton thought he was a man who have had to much to drink, as they were all but uncommon in Tecpan. "Hey, what's the big idea!" exclaimed Ashton, after he pushed the man down to the ground. "Hey wait a minute, no man I've ever met has half of their cranium exposed like that. Not to mention their skin isn't that awful shade of green. And speaking of awful, what is that smell?" The man continued to crawl to Ashton while growling. Ashton saw that the man's teeth were rotten as well. "Oh no. Please don't tell me!" Ashton noticed the herd in the distance came closer and closer to Ashton. They were all riled up. "This cannot be happening!" yelled Ashton, as he began to crush the head of the dead man in front of him with his foot. "Damn it!" said Ashton to himself. ---- Ashton sprinted back home as fast as possible, locking the door behind him. None of the dead managed to track him back to his home, which relieved him. "Wow. I missed A LOT." Ashton hurried back into his living room and discarded all of his school supplies. "Ok. I can't believe what I am seeing. Someone needs to have some anwers around here!" Ashton yelled. Ashton proceeded upstairs to his parent's room. He opened the closet and found a shelf. He opened the shelf and pulled out his father's trusty combat knife. "This should keep me safe enough if I avoid being seen. I have seen way too many of these movies to know what to not do.". Ashton placed the knife in its case and stored it away in one of his pockets of his newly put on pair of military pants that used to belong to a friend of his. "Now that I have a weapon, I'm going to need some supplies." Ashton said, as he went down to his big pantry. To his surprise, it was stocked. "Wow. I guess Aunt Patricia stocked up on supplies before this whole thing went down. There's enough here to last both of us for months!". exclaimed Ashton. Ashton put 3 bottles of water away in his backpack, along with 2 apples and a protein bar. "I don't plan on being out for very long. But if I get trapped in one place, I'm going to need to survive until it's clear to leave." As Ashton got ready to leave, he started hearing slight grumbles and growling. "What! No way! How did one of them get in here?!" Ashton proceeded slowly to the source of the noise, with his knife on hand. The noise led him to his backyard, where he found none other than his dear aunt all tied in chains. Upon seeing Ashton, Patricia began to growl and move. She couldn't however, as she was locked down tight. "Aunt...I...I'm sorry. But I can't leave you like this...you wouldn't have wanted it." said Ashton, his face devoid of tears. Ashton stabbed his aunt right through the eye and into her brain, ending her struggle. Ashton spent a good portion of the day digging a grave for his aunt. He eventually buried her and made her a cross out of some leftover wood. "There. That should do it" said Ashton. He had carved his aunt's name and dates of birth and death into the cross. "You were young, only 29. You didn't deserve this...you were a great woman. Rest in peace, my dear aunt." said Ashton, who was now about to bawl but didn't. He never could cry... ---- Ashton left his home. "I spent all morning digging her that grave. I wonder how much daylight I still have left." he thought. Ashton made his way back down to the taxi spot. The herd from earlier had separated, and now only a few of the dead were seen wandering around. "No human being would act like that" Ashton muttered to himself. Ashton decided it would be best to make it back to the zocalo. "Maybe there I can find signs of actual people" he thought. Ashton slowly approached the dead one by one, killing them with his knife, one by one. Ashton attracted very little attention to himself, as he only encountered 4 of the dead on the way to the zocalo. "Only 4 so far. I would go into OXXO but I don't want to risk the alarm being set off. That's the last thing I would want to happen to me." he thought to himself again. Ashton made his way past the hardware store. "Maybe I should stock up on tools too." thought Ashton. He quickly nabbed a flashlight, a screwdriver, a hammer, and a machete. "This should be all I need for now." said Ashton and slowly approached the zocalo. The mere sight of it horrified him. "No way!" The zocalo was completely overrun. "Ok. they haven't seen me. I can still get out..." Ashton thought to himself. He slowly moved back, but eventually backed up into a car. The car let out a large alarming sound. Suddenly, the dead turned all of their attention to Ashton. "No, this cannot be happening!" Ashton screamed as he ran back away, with the dead now in pursuit of him. Trivia *This issue was awarded "Outstanding Issue, Chapter, or Episode Title" at the UFSW Winter 2013 Awards. *This issue features the least amount of characters, with only 2. Out of the two, only one character appears alive. **Coincidentally, this is also the second issue. Rec Category:A Long Road to Fortune Category:Issues Category:A Long Road to Fortune Issues Category:PBR Sharpshoot Stories